GSF is designed to efficiently store and exchange information produced by geophysical measurement systems before it has been processed into either vector or raster form.

About Generic Sensor Format (GSF)

Generic Sensor Format (GSF) has become a standard file format for bathymetry data and is widely used in the maritime community. This single-file format is one of the U.S. Department of Defense Bathymetric Library (DoDBL) processing formats. GSF is configuration managed by Science Applications International Corporation (Leidos). Change management is overseen by a configuration control board that maintains final approval authority for updates to GSF. GSF is designed to efficiently store and exchange information produced by geophysical measurement systems before processing into either vector or raster form. The structure is particularly useful for data sets created by systems such as multibeam echosounders that collect a large quantity of data. GSF is designed to be modular and adaptable to meet the unique requirements of a variety of sensors.

The goals of GSF are:

Portability among all major computing platforms.

Extensibility so that new types of data and measurements can be easily incorporated.

Efficiency in terms of storage volume and data access.

Endorsement by the major groups of users outside the DoDBL.

Consistency with other DoDBL formats.

The GSF format, and code to read it, is updated to keep current with new technologies and uses. New releases of the GSF library are generally made once or twice each year. However, the frequency of updates to GSF in any particular year depends on technology advances and community requests for updates to GSF. New GSF releases provide an expansion of capability while striving to preserve all previous capability. A formal change request, approval, and release management process is followed for all updates made to the format and the access library. By downloading and using the GSF distribution, you consent to use an approved distribution obtained from this web site. Parties interested in an update to the library are encouraged to provide their request through the registration link provided below. A GSF version release includes the following items: